Re: <nettime> ISEA 2011 fees

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

thanks Eric -

yes, I concur, no need for nostalgia!

And I would note again the necessity of understanding what it means to
participate (as a remote network node, complete with highly attenuated
self-presence). In my memory, I don't recall any robust discussion
about this on nettime. I have raised this issue in my workshops and
when facilitating distributed events as it directly affects the
overall energy of the distributed encounter -- again, using the words
attention, focus, concentration -- where an extra effort is necessary
to project the self into a remote social gathering. It is necessary to
have the infrastructural technology in place, of course, but it also
requires remote and local nodes to be sensitive, aware, trusting, and
attentive.

Scale is everything, though, and as I have remarked elsewhere, the
seemingly powerful human desire for one to be heard by many, to be
listened to by many runs deep in a certain segment of the population.
Is it ego, is it a raw desire for social power? I can't say, but when
those people are subtracted from a gathering, in my own opinion,
the gathering becomes warmer, closer, more indeterminate, and more
inspiring.

It has something to do with the kind of people. Personally, I find the
vibe from folks who are driven to manifest themselves on large social
stages to generally be people to avoid. There is richness enough for
a life-time in small, intimate configurations of humans, especially
if they are intent on open engagement. Along (Paolo) Freire's ideas,
I have a solid and experience-proven belief that if you have a small
gathering of people who come to trust each other and trust their own
sensual presence in the world, together they have more than enough
potential to map out and establish inspiring life-practices.

> For myself, my next endeavour is a small scale one day public
> seminar on the legacies of tactical media (for about 150 attendance)

my obvious question, partly in jest, partly not -- will you stream and
have a feedback channel?

jh




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